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Jack Woltz
Jack Woltz was a movie producer from Hollywood. Biography Woltz was a Jewish movie producer who had achieved mild success in the film industry, having come up from nothing, rolling barrels with his father in Hell's Kitchen during the early 1900s. He eventually went on to found Woltz International Pictures, which grew into one of the biggest studios in Hollywood. During World War II he became the White House's propaganda adviser, obtaining a large government contract as well as political contacts in the process, as well as an acquaintance with J. Edgar Hoover. It is also revealed that he had become a pedophile in his old age who routinely molests young girls who audition for his movies, as well as the daughters of some of his actresses. To discourage these rumors, he married a series of actresses, as well as taking etiquette lessons from a British butler and dressing lessons from a British valet. By the 1940s, Woltz's latest hobby became racehorse breeding, and he had purchased the British Triple-Crown winning racehorse Khartoum for $600,000, planning to retire the champion from racing and put him to stud for Woltz's private stables. Woltz was very fond of the stallion, and spent a fortune hiring expert breeders, vets, and even armed P.I.'s to guard Khartoum's stable. Dealings with the Corleones in Los Angeles.]] In 1945, Woltz had bought the rights to film a war movie from a best selling novel. Woltz refuses to cast the singer/actor Johnny Fontane in his movie due to his jealousy over Fontane's role in the break up of one of Woltz's previous relationships. Woltz unsuccessfully tried to blacklist Johnny as a communist, but resorted to barring him from a movie role that would have restored Fontane's career. Fontane would have been perfect for the role, and probably have been a contender for the Best Actor Academy Award. However, Woltz, guided by revenge, turns Johnny down for the role in the hopes of destroying Johnny's career. Fontane asks Don Vito Corleone, who is his godfather, as well as the head of the Corleone family, to lean on Woltz. Corleone sends his consigliere, Tom Hagen, to Hollywood make Woltz "an offer he can't refuse". When Hagen introduces himself and pitches the offer, he hears "Woltz is listening", which gives the impression of starting off on the right foot. The deal was very generous: the Corleone family would make the unions under their control to stay away from Woltz Pictures. This would be a benefit, as one of Woltz's biggest stars had gotten addicted to heroin. The Corleones would order the union to force the actor to sober up by cutting off his heroin supply. Even better for Woltz was that Vito Corleone was willing to finance the entire production of his upcoming war movie should Fontaine be cast. Thinking Hagen is "some punk that Fontane hired", Woltz initially becomes enraged and resorts to truculent behavior and racial slurs. Woltz assaults Hagen with a series of anti-Italian racial slurs, then refuses to bargain. Later, after finding out Hagen worked for the Corleones, he appeared more eager to listen, trying to renegotiate to gain help with the union problems, but in the end he still refused to cast Fontane simply out of spite. Woltz even threatened to use his connections to the White House and the F.B.I. if the Corleones tried any "rough stuff". By contrast, Hagen is able to remain calm and professional during negotiation, whereas Woltz is hotheaded, stubborn, and impulsive. Don Vito's Answer Hagen returned to New York to report to Don Corleone, and told the Don that Woltz was not "Sicilian", i.e., Woltz was not willing to risk everything he had, including his life, just to settle a petty vendetta. Don Corleone decided to make Woltz realize this as well. One morning soon after, Woltz wakes up to find himself and his bedsheets covered in blood. He pulls back the covers to find Khartoum's severed head in his bed. Woltz realized that he was dealing with people who didn't think twice before butchering a half-million dollar horse and could easily do the same to him. After having a chance to calm down, Woltz's first instinct is to prosecute the Corleones, but rethinks this when he suspects that if word got out that he had been so easily pushed around by an "obscure little olive oil importer from New York", it would make him the laughingstock of Hollywood and he would lose all credibility. Since no people were killed, it was easier to deal to publicly deal with the death of a horse, even one as high status as Khartoum. Covering up the cause of Khartoum's untimely death, Woltz gave Johnny Fontane the role in his picture. When Johnny Fontane is nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the film, a spiteful Woltz bribes or threatens nearly everyone in Hollywood to keep him from winning. He is again thwarted by the Corleone family, and Fontane wins. Years later, Johnny Fontane retired from acting and focused solely on being a producer. The Corleones loaned him money to begin his own movie studio, which eventually became so reputable it proved a formidable rival to Woltz Pictures. The Offer Several years later, Woltz would again be dogged by rumors of pedophilia. To squelch this bad gossip he married former starlet Vickie Adair. She promptly squandered his fortune on extreme redecoration and additions to his mansion and lavish parties with hipsters and surfers. He survived only by quietly selling of assets and land from the back of his movie lot.The Godfather Returns. In 1962, the Corleone family needed to negotiate with Woltz again in order to remove the heat they were receiving from President James Shea. Woltz supplied them with a sex-tape of Shea and Marguerite Duvall that could be used for blackmail. Because of his help the Corleones secured him financially and his studio again became successful. He is considered a Hollywood legend.The Godfather's Revenge Personality and traits Woltz is a hard, ruthless figure who believes in the finer things in life. He was toughened up during his early days in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan. Despite this physical toughness he was also intelligent and cunning, and knew how to use his connections to his advantage. However he was also an arrogant pedophile who overestimated his power compared with that of Vito Corleone, who as a Sicilian was willing to die for a matter of honor, unlike Woltz. Woltz was a petty and embittered old man with an inflated ego and little social grace. He was often vulgar in his speech and had little respect for anyone he deemed beneath him. Behind the scenes He was portrayed by John Marley in the film and voiced by Doug Abrahams in the game. Although Woltz in the game parrots everything he said in the movie, the producers elected to hire a voice actor, likely because they felt the original voice tracks may have been aging. Influences Jack Woltz is believed to be based on Harry Cohn, the president and founder of Columbia Pictures who had cast Sinatra in From Here to Eternity. Moe Howard of the Three Stooges recalled that Cohn was "a real Jekyll-and-Hyde-type of guy, socially, he could be very charming". Cohn had ties to organized crime. New Jersey mob boss Longy Zwillman, a longtime friend, lent Cohn the money to buy complete control of Columbia. In The Godfather's Revenge Woltz states that he judges films by how many times he needs to go to the bathroom in their duration, something that was attributed to Jack Warner as well as to director Alfred Hitchcock. Media Notes and references ko:잭 월츠 Woltz, Jack Woltz, Jack